Idea 89: How to encourage innovation
Not geniuses, but average men require profound stimulation, incentive towards creative effort, and the nurture of great hopes.
John Collier, US social reformer
What can you do as a manager to encourage innovation around you? Here are some practical steps:
- Set an example by thinking about your own job and making some improvements. Remember, activity is not the same as action. Ships are not the only things that collect barnacles. Scrape them off your keel. If you change yourself, you will trigger change around you.
- Look at your work team with a new eye. Sort out the innovators from those who have lost their entrepreneurial drive. Encourage each individual to come up with a quota of ideas.
- Work out a fair system ...
